History Main / TheStoryThatNeverWas

[[folder:Video Game]]

* In ''the WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E13TimeWarped Time, Warped]]", Franchise/{{Batman}} tampers with the villain's time travel belt so that instead of going on his time traveling crime spree, as he did at the beginning of the previous episode, it locks him in a time loop at the point where he would have started.

* In ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' Season 2, after the Legends spend most of the season trying to keep the Spear of Destiny out of the hands of the LegionOfDoom, ultimately they fail and the Legion uses the Spear to rewrite reality. Even trapped within the Legion's Doomworld reality, the Legends make a final attempt to steal back the spear and undo the damage, only for Eobard Thawne to destroy the spear itself. The Legends then reason that the only way to repair reality is to stop the Legion from getting the Spear to begin with, so they travel back in time across their own personal history to UsefulNotes/WorldWarI where the Legion had first acquired the completed Spear. In a FinalBattle of the Legends teaming up with their past selves to face the Legion, all of the future Legends end up being killed with the exception of Sara. Sara then uses the Spear's reality powers to disable its own reality warping ''before'' the Legion would use it, thus preventing the Legion from ever creating the Doomworld to begin with and restoring reality to its correct nature.

This can be treated as utterly tragic, since it undoes CharacterDevelopment, and may even be a sadistic choice (the "nail" in question is often some sort of tragedy, such as the protagonist's death). Other times it has a slightly more optimistic spin, with it being implied that some of the nicer events that transpired will take place InSpiteOfANail (a slightly awkward scene of the main character befriending a character, especially a LoveInterest, who they no longer know is a popular one). In worse cases, it might even be AllForNothing, with it implied that the catastrophe that was averted could easily happen again (and the next people to experience it might be more selfish).

** In [[Recap/FuturamaS2E16AnthologyOfInterestI "Anthology of Interest I"]], Fry asks the "WhatIf" Machine what would have happened if he hadn't been cryogenically frozen in 1999--that is, if the entire premise of the show were undone. Turns out this would cause a TimeParadox--because the future ''needs'' Fry for an unexplained reason--and this damage to the timeline attracts the attention of UsefulNotes/AlGore and the Vice Presidential Action Squad. When they figure out that Fry ''needs'' to get frozen to save the timeline, Fry disbelieves them and breaks the freezer. The temporal paradox then implodes the entire universe--stranding Fry and the rest in a white void, with nothing to do but play play ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' for the rest of eternity.

* In ''the WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E13TimeWarped Time, Warped]]", Batman tampers with the villain's time travel belt so that instead of going on his time traveling crime spree, as he did at the beginning of the previous episode, it locks him in a time loop at the point where he would have started.

** In [[Recap/FuturamaS2E16AnthologyOfInterestI "Anthology of Interest I"]], Fry asks the "WhatIf" Machine what would have happened if he hadn't been cryogenically frozen in 1999--that is, if the entire premise of the show were undone. Turns out this would cause a TimeParadox--because the future ''needs'' Fry for an unexplained reason--and this damage to the timeline attracts the attention of Al Gore and the Vice Presidential Action Squad. When they figure out that Fry ''needs'' to get frozen to save the timeline, Fry disbelieves them and breaks the freezer. The temporal paradox then implodes the entire universe--stranding Fry and the rest in a white void, with nothing to do but play play ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' for the rest of eternity.

** Max realises she can jump back in time via photos (as well as just reversing it briefly as is done in normal gameplay) and tries to fix the death of Chloe's [[GoodParents near angelic father]]. In the new timeline Chloe suffered a car accident instead and is dying a slow, painful death while confined to a wheelchair, suffering many of the bad things that were previously caused by her father's death[[note]]kicked out of school because they can't accommodate her rather than delinquency, the family are on the verge of poverty because of medical bills despite her father's job, Max still moved away (and seems socially isolated at school as an AlphaBitch instead of a wallflower) and all the mysterious events they were investigating -- including the random death of animals, freak weather events and the disappearance of Rachel (who Chloe never met) -- are still happening[[/note]], culminating in a choice of whether you [[ICannotSelfTerminate kill her with an overdose]] at her own request, or not. This is finally enough to make Max restore the original timeline, where Chloe is miserable and went through hell for the last 5 years, but still alive. The entire scene is effectively foreshadowing for the endings...

** In the [[Recap/DoctorWHoNSS3E12TheSoundOfDrums two]]-[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E13LastOfTheTimeLords parter]] finale of Series 3 of the revival. [[ArchEnemy The Master]] had [[TheBadGuyWins succeeded]] in taking control over the entire world, trapping the Doctor in a rapid ageing state, and Martha Jones on the run on the ground. The Master accomplished this by using a psychic MindControlDevice to gradually work his way into being elected Prime Minister of Britain, before using an army of Toclafane (cyborg future human he had transported to the present) to cease control of the whole world. The Master would spend a year having his army gradually killing off the population of Earth, which was a TemporalParadox since they were killing their ancestors. This is only made possible due to the Master turning the Doctor's TARDIS into a paradox machine. The Doctor ultimately manages to defeat the Master, by having Martha travel the Earth to every human survivor (linked with the Master's psychic device) and have them [[WordPower all think his name in unison]], allowing the psychic energies to be [[EmpoweredBadassNormal granted to him]]. Once the Master is out of the way, the paradox machine is destroyed, causing the entire year of the Master's reign to reset back to before the paradox machine was activated. Only the select few people present near the machine retained memories of the year, while the rest of the population of the Earth were unaware of it occurring. This year came to be known as "The Year That Never Was".

* In ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' Season 2, after the Legends spend most of the season trying to keep the Spear of Destiny out of the hands of the LegionOfDoom, ultimately they fail and the Legion uses the Spear to rewrite reality. Even trapped within the Legion's Doomworld reality, the Legends make a final attempt to steal back the spear and undo the damage, only for Eobard Thawne to destroy the spear itself. The Legends then reason that the only way to repair reality is to stop the Legion from getting the Spear to begin with, so they travel back in time across their own personal history to WWI where the Legion had first acquired the completed Spear. In a FinalBattle of the Legends teaming up with their past selves to face the Legion, all of the future Legends end up being killed with the exception of Sara. Sara then uses the Spear's reality powers to disable its own reality warping ''before'' the Legion would use it, thus preventing the Legion from ever creating the Doomworld to begin with and restoring reality to its correct nature.

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekS1E28TheCityOnTheEdgeOfForever "City on the Edge of Forever"]] ends with this trope {{implied|trope}}. When [=McCoy=] gets drugged and falls through a mysterious portal through time, his changes to the timeline cause the ''Enterprise'' to disappear from the present. Kirk and Spock follow [=McCoy=] into the portal, arriving in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity in TheThirties. They meet the peace activist Edith Keeler, and soon realize that she's the change in the timeline. [=McCoy=] saved her (or [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble will soon save her]]) from an early death, and her activism will delay the USA's entry into WWII just long enough to lead to a BadFuture. So Kirk prevents [=McCoy=] from rescuing Keeler--erasing [=McCoy's=] involvement in the past and restoring the timeline to normal.

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekS1E28TheCityOnTheEdgeOfForever "City on the Edge of Forever"]] ends with this trope {{implied|trope}}. When [=McCoy=] gets drugged and falls through a mysterious portal through time, his changes to the timeline cause the ''Enterprise'' to disappear from the present. Kirk and Spock follow [=McCoy=] into the portal, arriving in New York City in the '30s. They meet the peace activist Edith Keeler, and soon realize that she's the change in the timeline. [=McCoy=] saved her (or [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble will soon save her]]) from an early death, and her activism will delay the USA's entry into WWII just long enough to lead to a BadFuture. So Kirk prevents [=McCoy=] from rescuing Keeler--erasing [=McCoy's=] involvement in the past and restoring the timeline to normal.

* Lewis Robinson of Disney's ''Disney/MeetTheRobinsons'' discovers the far future is an ugly {{dystopia}} where humanity is a SlaveRace to mechanized overlords. Learning that it's one of his inventions that went rogue and begat this dystopia, Lewis gives a DeathGlare to the CyberCyclops BigBad and delivers the scathing PreMortemOneLiner "... and I'm not inventing you!" Whereupon the device dissolves from existence, just before Lewis exploits the TimeyWimeyBall to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong.

* ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/348928/quantum-starlight Quantum Starlight]]'' (a ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic and WholePlotReference to ''VideoGame/QuantumBreak''): an accident during the first test of a time machine causes time itself to fracture, leading to a whole mess of unchangeable {{Stable Time Loop}}s and the looming threat of a TimeCrash. And then the protagonists find a method of time travel that ''does'' allow them to change the past, so they go back and stop the original accident. The majority of the plot is erased from the timeline, but the time travelers retain their memories of events retconned away.

* In ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet'' saga, ComicBook/{{Thanos}} managed to get the Infinity Gauntlet, a powerful AppliedPhlebotinum that can modify everything, so he erased the half of sentient life of the universe to please Ms. Death, among other things like defeating the Cosmic Entities of the ComicBook/MarvelUniverse. After the battle against the Mad God, finally Adam Warlock got the infinity Gauntlet from Thanos and used to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong by restoring all the lifes lost in the event (not just the ones erased by Thanos, also the deaths of heroes battling Thanos) and also managed to get everyone in the universe that was AllJustADream.

* As well as referencing the Star Trek example (as seen in the page quote), ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'' has this twice itself; at the beginning of chapter 4, and for the entire game.

->''"I remember this famous episode of the original Star Trek, where Kirk has to go back in time and let the person he loves die, so the Nazis won't win the war... What kind of fucked up choice is that?"''

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
* Lewis Robinson of Disney's ''Disney/MeetTheRobinsons'' discovers the far future is an ugly {{dystopia}} where humanity is a SlaveRace to mechanized overlords. Learning that it's one of his inventions that went rogue and begat this dystopia, Lewis gives a DeathGlare to the CyberCyclops BigBad and delivers the scathing PreMortemOneLiner "... and I'm not inventing you!" Whereupon the device dissolves from existence, just before Lewis exploits the TimeyWimeyBall to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong.
[[/folder]]

Compare SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, where undoing a specific event is the overall goal (which might lead to this trope), TheGreatestStoryNeverTold (which happened, but was simply kept secret) and ResetButtonEnding, which returns the work to its {{Status Quo|IsGod}} without resolving the conflict on its own (and doesn't always include altering history). Contrast AllJustADream, where the events are revealed to simply never have happened, LeaveYourQuestTest where undoing everything would be seen as a copout on the heroes' part, and StableTimeLoop, where changes to the timeline are either inevitable or meshed in perfectly (although it's still possible to run into the "bad outweighs the good" problem).

Compare SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, where undoing a specific event is the overall goal (which might lead to this trope), TheGreatestStoryNeverTold (which happened, but was simply kept secret) and ResetButtonEnding, which returns the work to its {{Status Quo|IsGod}} without resolving the conflict on its own (and doesn't always include a CosmicRetcon). Contrast AllJustADream, where the events are revealed to simply never have happened, LeaveYourQuestTest where undoing everything would be seen as a copout on the heroes' part, and StableTimeLoop, where changes to the timeline are either inevitable or meshed in perfectly (although it's still possible to run into the "bad outweighs the good" problem).

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Back to the Pilot", Brian asks for Stewie's help in finding a lost tennis ball. Stewie agrees to take Brian back in time so he can see the location, but Brian fails to listen ends up telling his past self about the 9/11 attacks. This results in an apocalyptic BadFuture from the result of nuclear attacks. After multiple trips result in [[MesACrowd dozens of Stewies and Brians]] from the future arguing it out on whether or not to prevent 9/11, one of the Stewies decides to hold a vote. Upon the majority agreeing to allow 9/11 to happen, this Stewie and Brian then travel one minute back in time to the very first point they arrived via time travel, before they made ''any'' changes. Stewie then draws a gun on the past Stewie and Brian and forces them to go back to the present. By doing so, Stewie managed to [[CosmicRetcon erase the entire timeline]] created by the time travel along with this version of Brian and Stewie.

Sometimes the protagonist will wake up and find out that it was AllJustADream. This is a slightly darker take that shows up in speculative fiction that deals with TimeTravel, {{Reality Warp|er}}ing and alternate realities; the events really took place, but some key ForWantOfANail near the beginning [[CosmicRetcon must be undone]] to resolve the plot's key conflict. It could be the solution to ending a GroundhogDayLoop (as opposed to getting the loop perfect), a matter of realising that a single trip was a case of MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight, or it could just be a case of the option to RetGone everything coming up in the finale. Reasons can include BalancingDeathsBooks, preventing a TimeParadox, or simply discovering that the unintended consequences of the event in question outweigh the good it does. More often than not, the event in question is the same one that brought about said conflict, making this an odd sort of CuttingTheKnot solution.

* The episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' "Recap/StarTrekS1E28TheCityOnTheEdgeOfForever" ends with this trope {{implied|trope}}, the crew find themselves on Earth in the 30's after [=McCoy=] ends up accidentally drugged and falls through a mysterious portal, which causes the Enterprise to disappear. While they look for him, they meet a beautiful woman who they eventually realise became a peace activist who delayed America's entry into WWII just long enough to lead to a BadFuture. Kirk is forced to grab [=McCoy=] when he moves to prevent her from being run over while crossing the road (as presumably happened with Bones present, but not Kirk).

** In the first of the "Anthology of Interest" What If style episodes there is this trope in the context of the short. It turns out that Fry not getting frozen and getting on with his life would lead to a TimeParadox (he's much happier in the future, but he doesn't know that). Parodied when a team lead by Al Gore try to kill him under the assumption he was meant to die (with the implication that they've done this before), before realising that he was meant to be frozen. Subverted when Fry learns this, he destroys the cryogenic pod instead of being frozen, and the universe is destroyed, leaving the group to play ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' for the rest of eternity.
** ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': [[Recap/FuturamaS4E10TheWhyOfFry "The Why of Fry"]] teases at this. The brain spawn's last-ditch effort to destroy the universe is to send Fry (the only person capable of stopping them) back to 1999 to prevent himself from getting cryogenically frozen--the event that kicked off the entire series. But Nibbler gives future-Fry a pep talk that convinces him that getting frozen and sent to the year 3000 is necessary. Fry instead makes a minor change that ensures he isn't in a position to be tempted by the brain spawn in the first place.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' an episode revolves around Francis Grey, a clock-repair man who, because of his family's dire financial straits, stole an expensive watch. Leading to a cavalcade of DisasterDominoes which [[UnintentionallyNotoriousCrime landed him 20 years in prison]]. After developing TimeMaster powers and using them to lash out with an EvilPlan, he accidentally kills his son, supercharging them and going back to the moment before he stole the watch; wisely deciding to just work overtime instead. The episode ends as it began; with the bat-family discussing new years resolutions, but a clock that Alfred had trouble repairing has been fixed by none other than Francis himself. The episode ends less than a few minutes after it chronologically started with Francis returning to his van labelled "Grey and Son, watch repair" to spend Christmas with his family.

The TheTimeTravellersDilemma is a subtrope.

The TimeTravellersDilemma is a subtrope.

* In the [[Recap/DoctorWHoNSS3E12TheSoundOfDrums two]]-[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E13LastOfTheTimeLords parter]] finale of Series 3 of the revival. [[ArchEnemy The Master]] had [[TheBadGuyWins succeeded]] in taking control over the entire world, trapping the Doctor in a rapid ageing state, and Martha Jones on the run on the ground. The Master accomplished this by using a psychic MindControlDevice to gradually work his way into being elected Prime Minister of Britain, before using an army of Toclafane (cyborg future human he had transported to the present) to cease control of the whole world. The Master would spend a year having his army gradually killing off the population of Earth, which was a TemporalParadox since they were killing their ancestors. This is only made possible due to the Master turning the Doctor's TARDIS into a paradox machine. The Doctor ultimately manages to defeat the Master, by having Martha travel the Earth to every human survivor (linked with the Master's psychic device) and have them [[WordPower all think his name in unison]], allowing the psychic energies to be [[EmpoweredBadassNormal granted to him]]. Once the Master is out of the way, the paradox machine is destroyed, causing the entire year of the Master's reign to reset back to before the paradox machine was activated. Only the select few people present near the machine retained memories of the year, while the rest of the population of the Earth were unaware of it occurring. This year came to be known as "The Year That Never Was".

Note: Since this is still a draft, I've included spoiler tags for the benefit of TLP contributers. They will be removed on launch (Now removed in advance).

Title Suggestions:

'''[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/AlternativeTitles/AllMustBeErased VOTE HERE]]'''

* AllMustBeErased
* PreventTheFatefulEvent
* RetconTwist
* TheDayThatNeverWas
* TheStoryThatNeverWas*
* WholePlotReset
* Ripping the Wings Off a Butterfly Effect

Indexes:
* EndingTropes
* PlotTwist

'''Draft begins below the line:'''
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